PennDOT hopes to privatize, hasten bridge repairs

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation hopes to team with private industry to take a bite out of the state's inventory of deficient bridges.

At least 500 decaying spans would be replaced starting in 2015 under a partnership in which a private entity would be selected to design, build and maintain the bridges, in exchange for payments from PennDOT that would be tied to performance.

The state owns about 4,200 bridges designated as structurally deficient. While considered safe, the bridges have at least one deteriorating component, placing them at risk for weight restrictions or, ultimately, closure. The average age of Pennsylvania's bridges is about 50 years.

About 18 percent of the state's bridges are structurally deficient, while the national average is just over 7 percent. Pennsylvania leads the U.S. in deficient bridges, a dubious distinction it is likely to shed after the Rapid Bridge Replacement Project moves forward.

Under a 2012 "P3" public-private partnership law, PennDOT initially had hoped to bundle 300 bridges into the program, but enactment of new transportation funding legislation last November enabled the department to expand the program.

Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, was the only Lehigh Valley lawmaker in the House to vote in favor of the bill. Voting no were Democratic Reps. Daniel McNeill, Steve Samuelson and Robert Freeman, and Republican Reps. Justin Simmons, Ryan Mackenzie, Julie Harhart, Gary Day, Marcia M. Hahn and Joe Emrick. In the Senate, Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, and Bob Mensch, R-Berks, voted for the bill. Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, voted against it.

Sixty-seven mostly smaller bridges in PennDOT's six-county, Allentown-based District 5 currently are on the list of state bridges eligible for fast-track status for repair or replacement, spokesman Sean Brown said Tuesday, adding that the list is subject to change. He stressed that these bridges can be considered by companies bidding for the oversight contract, but have not yet been selected for repair or replacement.

Among the bridges included in the original list of 52 in District 5 are Route 222 (Hamilton Street) over Cedar Creek, and Camp Meeting Road over Saucon Creek, both in Lehigh County, and the two Route 33 northbound spans over Route 22 in Northampton County.

Though most of the fast-track bridges are small, many in the 20-foot range in length and one as short as nine feet, each Route 33 bridge is 216 feet long with more than 12,000 square feet of deck area, according to PennDOT documents. The biggest bridge in District 5 is the Route 422 (Reading Bypass) bridge over Thun Recreational Trail in Berks County, at 753 feet long and nearly 50,000 square feet of deck area.

PennDOT hopes to capitalize on cost savings because most of the new bridges will have similar designs and construction standards. In the past, the department typically would pay for design and construction of bridges one at a time.

The public-private partnership "gives us the ability to accelerate the delivery of 550 to 650 bridge replacements that otherwise wouldn't happen for 15 to 20 years if we were to use a traditional contracting model," PennDOT spokeswoman Erin Waters-Trasatt said.

The project has generated a lot of buzz in the construction industry. A presentation on the program in November drew representatives of nearly 150 companies, including contractors, engineers and financial organizations.

"A great portion of my members are very interested in this program," said Eric Madden, executive vice president of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Pennsylvania, comprising more than 125 companies.

PennDOT has invited companies to submit their qualifications to oversee the program by Jan. 31. After a review, PennDOT will invite qualified teams to submit proposals. It will determine the best proposal based on cost and technical approach, and hopes to have construction underway on 50 to 100 of the bridges in 2015.

The winning bidder also will maintain the new bridges over a long term, possibly up to 40 years.

Traditionally, a contractor's responsibility ends with completion of a bridge, Waters-Trasatt said. "With the requirement to take maintenance costs into consideration, the project team may decide it is more cost effective to build the bridges in a way that reduces the amount of anticipated maintenance in the future. The department anticipates realizing value from this by reducing not just the construction cost but the whole life cycle cost of the bridge."

The state has made great progress in recent years, reducing its backlog of more than 6,000 structurally deficient bridges to the current total of 4,211 as of Dec. 31.